Originally Posted by djplong

Yeah, no kidding. Bush couldn't blame any deficits on Clinton. There were none. He couldn't blame bad unemployment on Clinton - it was 4.2% when he took office, peaked at 6.3% in June 2003 and was 7.8% and rocketing up (750,000 jobs per month evaporating) when he left.

Inflation was at 3.7% when he took office in 2001. By the time he left in 2009, he had several months that year at an annual rate hovering around 5% - which plummeted to DEflation (due to the recession) within months of Obama's inauguration.

By almost any measure, Bush left office with a country in FAR worse shape than he inherited.